With radiotelephone systems moving into digital data transfer instead of audio-type data transfer, direct digital synthesis is an ideal adaptation of converting analog technology into digital technology. In a direct digital synthesizer (DDS), a known non-return to zero (NRZ) data stream representing a predetermined sequence is input into a DDS modulator resulting in a corresponding analog signal. The analog signal can either be modulated or unmodulated depending on the NRZ data stream representation.
The DDS is ideal and very well suited for use in the transmitters of digital radiotelephone systems. These transmitters generally require high stability and increased frequency accuracy than do their typical analog counterparts. Reproducability of a typical quadrature modulated signal is also a problem in the transmitters of digital radiotelephone systems. Using analog-to-analog synthesizers typically leads to various adjustments required for such things as DC offset and input analog signal amplitude adjustment. With DDS modulators incorporated in the transmitters of digital radiotelephone system, the requirements of stability and reproducability are inherent in the DDS modulator itself.
Due to the requirements of wide frequency coverage and fine frequency resolution, phase accumulators that are typically employed in DDS modulators generally are required to be quite long. This requirement comes about due to the fact that more bits are required to realize the fine frequency resolution that digital radiotelephone systems require. Large phase accumulators tend to make transmitter circuitry complex which in turn may become very expensive. Also, to minimize part count and ensure the use of common parts throughout the radiotelephone system, an engineering compromise must be made as to the type and quantity of parts that are used.
Thus, a need exists for a direct digital synthesizer having an increased effective frequency resolution without increasing phase accumulator length, thus making the DDS hardware simpler and frequency modulation easier to implement.